Expansive $369 billion climate and energy package includes “mixed bag” of subsidies to nascent and mature technologies
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 12, 2022
CONTACT: Christina Nyquist | 202.871.9312 | cnyquist@epsa.org
WASHINGTON – The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022 today passed the House of Representatives, sending the mammoth bill to President Biden for his signature. In response to the IRA passage, EPSA President and CEO Todd Snitchler issued the following statement:
“The Inflation Reduction Act provides a mixed bag of federal funding mechanisms for various energy solutions. It includes much-needed support to scale-up nascent technologies, like carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) and hydrogen. However, the package continues to extend subsidies to mature technologies that no longer require federal governmental support to enable deployment in competitive electricity markets. Moreover, existing nuclear power plants will receive additional federal funding – on top of the federal support already provided in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act – creating a windfall for some plants that are profitable and may already receive state subsidies.
Competitive power suppliers are investing in and building lower- and zero- carbon technology through private investment. But this type of federal funding skews the market and sends the wrong signals on investment and innovation – putting an unnecessary burden on consumers and making the energy transition more costly than it needs to be. Meanwhile, it is critical that policymakers put an equal if not greater focus on protecting the reliability of our electric system in tandem with decarbonization efforts. This bill is another reminder that economy-wide carbon pricing, rather than a piecemeal approach, would be the more effective and efficient route to rapidly reduce emissions.”
The IRA continues a longstanding patchwork of federal energy policy, focused on selective decarbonization technologies rather than a holistic market-based approach – such as carbon pricing – that prioritizes reliability and competition. Allowing energy solutions to compete in wholesale electricity markets, however, has maintained reliability, reduced emissions, and kept costs low. EPSA will continue to work with policymakers to help ensure system reliability, avoid unnecessary spending, and enable competition to lower costs for customers and taxpayers.”
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The Electric Power Supply Association (EPSA) is the national trade association representing America’s competitive power suppliers. EPSA members provide about 150,000 MW of reliable and competitively priced electricity from environmentally responsible facilities using a diverse mix of fuels and technologies including natural gas, wind, solar, hydropower, geothermal, storage, biomass, and coal. EPSA seeks to bring the benefits of competition to all power customers. Learn more at www.epsa.org and connect with us on LinkedIn and Twitter @EPSAnews.
